


The Summer That Changed Mark’s Life

by HeadlinesBreadlinesBlowMyMind



Category: Rent - Larson
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, LGBT camp, M/M, Modern AU, Trans!Mark Cohen, Trans!Roger Davis, idk i just like writing gay shit, kinda slow burn, they are teens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 19:34:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15493122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeadlinesBreadlinesBlowMyMind/pseuds/HeadlinesBreadlinesBlowMyMind
Summary: Mark is going to a summer camp. An LGBT one at that. He’s scared he will be alone the whole week. Then he meets Roger.





	The Summer That Changed Mark’s Life

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhhhhh okay I’m really excited for this story (I don’t think I’ve been this excited for one ever). It’ll have different parts so just be patient with me.

It’s 1:07 am. Mark is still awake. The anxiety growing inside of him. Tomorrow (considering the time, it was technically today) he would be going to camp for four days. Four whole days without parents, surrounded by teens his age. Why did it only now occur to him that this might be a bad idea. Kids his age are scary. Or at least they seem scary to an anxious, introverted and short boy. 

Mark was trans. It wasn’t really an issue normally because of how easily he passed. But now he was debating being openly trans during his time at the camp. It was an LGBT camp, and it could be amazing if people were accepting. But he knew that there were transphobic gay people, and it could also be a huge mistake to out himself. Fuck. He was anxious normally, sure, but it wasn’t usually as bad as now. 

He would have to talk to people. Unless he wanted to stay in his room for the whole time at camp, which right now seemed pretty appealing. What if nobody liked him, openly trans or not, he was still extremely awkward. Maybe going to an LGBT camp wasn’t the best of ideas, he had seen pride parades on TV and they were always so loud and crazy. If camp was anything like that he would probably have an anxiety attack. 

No, he can’t be feeling like this now, it’s too late to back down and he needs to sleep. He needs to get up early tomorrow, god damn it. Sleep Mark, just fucking sleep! He thought before tightly closing his eyes and trying his best to turn his stupid mind off. 

——————-

He was there. He was actually there. The camp area was quite nice actually, the houses were made of wood and they looked quite homely. There were about 5-10 rooms in the houses. They all had their own bathroom and a bed. Mark was so happy he didn’t have to share a room or a bathroom with anyone. That would have been actual hell for an antisocial kid like him. 

Quietly he got in line to get a keycard to his room. There were already a lot of people in the lobby, probably at least 20 teens. Most of them were talking and it was all just a loud mess. Mark needed to get his key as quickly as possible so he could leave the lobby. He silently prayed camp wouldn’t be this loud and obnoxious all the time. The line was moving slowly but surely and Mark was suddenly next in line. He got his keycard and practically ran out of the lobby, determined to find his room so he could breathe for a bit. 

“Hey!”

Mark heard someone yell. He didn’t think anything of it and continued on his quest to find his room.

“Hey!” 

Mark felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. His eyes met green ones. The pretty eyes belonged to a boy with long brown hair. It was slightly curly at the tips. The guy looked like he didn’t care about his hair, but in a good way. Mark didn’t know how that was possible, but the boy managed to pull it off. 

“I saw you rushing out of the lobby, so I’m guessing you’re as introverted as I am,”

The boy removed his hand from Mark’s shoulder and grinned at him. Mark took a step back to get a better look at him. He was taller than Mark, not a lot, but by a few inches. He was wearing a T-shirt with a logo that Mark assumed to be a band logo, but he didn’t recognize it. The kid was also wearing black jeans with rips in. The pants were a bit big so they were a tiny bit baggy, they still looked good on him though. 

“For a self proclaimed introverted person, you do seem to love talking to strangers,” 

Fuck. That came out less playful than intended and now Mark just sounded like a sarcastic twat. Great first impression. The boy looked a bit confused at the sudden sarcasm and Mark felt he needed to apologize.

“I- uh. Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. Wow, I’m really bad at this sorta thing. Sorry. I’m-uh, I’m Mark by the way,”

He reached out his hand, wait, was that weird? Do teenagers shake hands. The more he thought of it the more he realized it was probably more of an adult thing to shake hands. His thoughts were interrupted by the boy shaking his hand. 

Oh. Okay then.

“I’m Roger,”

He said and smiled again. 

“And it’s okay. I’m sorry too, I must’ve surprised you a bit by randomly coming up to you,” 

Mark started to notice more about Roger the longer he looked at him. It seemed like he had a piercing in his right ear, it looked like it had been stretched, but Mark knew next to nothing about piercings so he might be wrong. Roger was also wearing a dog tag. Mark wondered if it said something, if it had something written on it it was turned away from Mark. He also thought he’d seen something silver glinting in Roger’s mouth when he spoke. Did he have a tongue piercing too? 

“What room number do you have? I was here last year so I can help you find your room if you want,”

Wow okay. He definitely had a tongue piercing. 

“Yeah sure, that would be great, thank you!”

Mark smiled up at the other boy. Maybe he’d be able to get a friend here after all. 

——————

After a few minutes they managed to find Mark’s room. Roger watched Mark set his luggage besides his bed. He hadn’t followed Mark into his room, but the door was open so Roger could see everything Mark was doing.

“So, uh. Do you want to hang out when you’re done unpacking?” 

Mark froze. Was Roger serious? He highly doubted Roger wanted to hang out with a looser like himself. 

“It’s totally okay if you don’t want to, I was just thinking that it would be nice. You don’t have to though,” 

Shit, he’d spent too much time answering. 

“No, no no no. I want to hang out, sorry,”

Mark turned to face Roger, his lips curling into a smile. Roger was beaming.

“Really?” 

Mark’s first impression had been wrong. Roger was an introvert. Mark just nodded in response.

“You can come in you know. Sit down while I’m unpacking,”

“Right,”

Roger was still smiling and he closed the door behind him when he walked into Mark’s room. He sat down on the bed. Mark was frantically getting out all his clothes from his bag before messily folding them and putting them into the closet he had been provided. He tried to seem calm, but it was hard to hide his excitement. Someone actually wanted to hang out with him, and they were the one initiating it. 

“Your hair looks nice,”

Roger said, breaking the silence. Mark’s hand automatically went up to his hair and he ran his fingers through it. 

“Thank you!”

He croaked back. Mark had never been the best at taking compliments. He would forever hate the blush that lightly crept up his face. 

—————

They were hanging out at some playground, they were the only ones there so it was quiet. The playground was surrounded by trees and that made Mark feel isolated from the rest of the camp. It felt nice. Mark was sitting on a bench while Roger was sitting on top of a slide, occasionally sliding down. 

Roger was cute. Sure Mark could easily tell when they first met, but it wasn’t just appearance anymore. Roger seemed playful and happy. He was sweet and the tiny giggle he made every time he slid down the slide was straight up adorable. Mark liked hanging out with Roger, he was easy to talk to and he actually seemed like he wanted to talk to Mark. It felt amazing!

“Sooooooo, why are you here? As in like, why are you at an LGBT camp” 

Oh right. Roger was forward as well. Mark didn’t know how to respond. He could just say he was bisexual and that would be the end of that, it wouldn’t be lying. It would just be hiding the full truth. What if Roger turned out to be the biggest transphobe on planet earth? Although if he was, Mark wouldn’t want to hang out with him.

“I’m bi,” 

Mark said, reaching up to scratch the back of his head, he usually did that when he was nervous. 

“And uh, I’m- I’m trans,” 

Mark looked down to avoid Roger’s face. He didn’t want to see his reaction in case it was negative. He held his breath.”

“Oh, me too,”

Oh....OH! 

“Really?” 

Mark looked up to meet Roger’s eyes again. Roger’s face was slightly flushed. 

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to tell anyone. But it felt unfair when you told you were trans. I hope you feel special, cause you’re the only one that knows here,” 

It was one of his playful jokes, but it did actually make Mark feel special. People didn’t usually trust him with stuff like that, not because he was bad at keeping secrets, but because people didn’t care enough to get close with Mark. He may or may not have blushed pretty intensely. 

Roger slid down the slide and sat down next to Mark on the bench. 

“You’re such a dork,” 

He teased. He ruffled Mark’s hair before taking a quick look at his watch. 

“Lunch time!” 

He jumped off the bench and grabbed Mark’s wrist, dragging him him off the bench as well. 

“C’mon!”


End file.
